If we had to summarise what happened to the Baltic states
during World War II in just a few words, we'd say, "They were occupied... hard." However,
the reality of the situation was more complicated than that. In this video,
we're going to give Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania some of the attention they deserve.
Before things hit the fan in September 1939, Estonia had declared itself neutral, along with
Latvia and Lithuania. Little did Estonia know, however, that Stalin and Hitler would assign
it to the Soviet "sphere of influence" under the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact about a year later. With
the pact signed and Poland crushed, the Soviets set their sights on Estonia, leveraging the Orzeł
incident to justify an unjust ultimatum. With Soviet warships and warplanes looming overhead,
Estonia signed an agreement stipulating that the Soviets could set up military bases in Estonia
and call on it for military support. They should never have let Stalin get his foot in the door.
In June 1940, some 160,000 Red Army troops spilt out of said bases or otherwise invaded
Estonia. While some Estonians put up a fight, the government ordered the military to stand down. The
Soviets then took control of the government and proclaimed Estonia a part of the USSR.
Over the next year, they arrested, deported, and killed thousands of Estonians. Of
the 8,000 arrested in this time, more than one-quarter of them were killed inside Estonia,
while the rest were sent to prison camps in Russia, where they suffered a far slower death.
In 1940, the Soviets conscripted some 17,000 Estonians into the Red Army,
under the 22nd Territorial Rifle Corps, but many of these men defected to the Germans
during Operation Barbarossa, and the unit was liquidated in September 1941. Additionally, around
40% of Estonia's naval fleet, which was out of port during the Soviet invasion, sailed into the
arms of the British, who enlisted Estonian ships and sailors in the Royal Navy and merchant marine.
On Operation Barbarossa, it proved disastrous for Estonia. As the Soviets retreated,
they employed scorched earth tactics, murdering thousands of civilians and destroying as many as
13,500 buildings and more than 3,200 farms. Of the 33,000 Estonians the Soviets had conscripted
into the Red Army at this point, not even half of them saw combat, and those who didn't were
discarded into concentration camps and labour battalions. Many brave Estonians fought against
the Soviets too, with most of these men conducting guerrilla operations under the
Baltic partisan organisation known as the Forest Brothers, which we'll get to later.
While most Estonians were happy to see the Soviets go,
they soon realised the Germans were not their friends. They set about "Germanizing" Estonia,
letting Germans in and booting so-called "undesirables" out. They also subjected
Estonia to the Holocaust, exterminating almost a quarter of its Jewish population.
While some Estonians volunteered to fight in the Waffen-SS and Wehrmacht,
most didn't want to. It wasn't until 1944 that the Germans picked up their conscription game,
consolidating various Estonian units under the 20th Waffen Grenadier Division of the
SS (1st Estonian) and bringing the number of Estonians fighting for Germany up to 70,000.
This was in reaction to the turn of the tide of the Eastern Front. The Estonians and Germans
staved off the Soviet counteroffensive for some time, but the Red Army ultimately retook Estonia,
inspiring some 80,000 people to flee. The USSR literally dissolved before Estonia
was in Estonian hands again, with the Russian Federation withdrawing from Estonia in 1994.
Outside of Estonia, from 1942 to the 1946, the Red Army also recruited ethnic
Estonians in the USSR into the 8th Estonian Rifle Corps, which had grown to a strength of about
27,000 by late 1942. The corps even fought *against* the aforementioned *20th Waffen
Grenadier Division of the SS (1st Estonian)* at times — Estonians killing Estonians.
All in all, Estonia lost around 25% of its 1.1 million-strong population throughout
the war, with deaths accounting for about 81,000 of those losses.
As we said, Latvia started out neutral too. Also like Estonia, the Soviets forced Latvia
into a pact which allowed the Red Army to station its troops on Latvian territory,
beginning with some 25,000. Of course, once the Soviets had their foot in the door,
they revealed their true intentions, demanding the entry of an unlimited number of troops.
In June 1940, the Soviets marched in, took control of the government,
and annexed Latvia into the USSR. As with Estonia, they then began "Sovietising" it,
arresting, deporting, and executing anyone who stood in their way. In 1940 alone, as many as
27,500 Latvians were arrested, and as many as 50,000 lost their lives. Some 35,000 were
deported, accounting for around 1.8% of the population. The Red Army also absorbed the
Latvian army, ultimately turning it into the 24th Territorial Rifle Corps. Though,
of the original 24,400 men in the corps, all but 3,000 either deserted or were arrested or shot.
About a year after the Soviets had seized Latvia, the Germans drove them out and, like in Estonia,
were welcomed with open arms. Again, Latvia's German "liberators" soon revealed their true
nature, intending to "Germanise" Latvia by deporting or murdering up to 50% of
its population, which was about 2 million at the time. Among the Latvians who were to be removed
were the Jews, who accounted for around 70,000 of the 80,000 to 100,000 Latvian citizens killed
under Germany's reign. What's worse is that some Latvians participated in the Holocaust, with the
auxiliary police unit Arājs Kommando, for example, murdering as many as 26,000 Jews by itself.
The Germans were much more successful at bringing Latvians into their army than their
Soviet counterparts. Early in 1943, they started drafting them into the Waffen-SS and Wehrmacht,
and by mid-1944, there were as many as 87,550 Latvians in the Latvian Legion of the SS
and some 23,000 in Wehrmacht auxiliaries. Between 15 and 20% of them were volunteers.
When the Soviets reversed the Eastern Front, they returned for Latvia as they did Estonia,
occupying the state and subjecting its people to more arrests, deportations,
and death. The Soviets also recreated Latvian Red Army units, mustering some
15,000 Latvians under the 130th Latvian Rifle Corps, which fought *against* Latvian SS units.
Some 200,000 German troops held out in the region of Courland before surrendering to the Soviets,
and among them were around 14,000 Latvian soldiers, who joined the Germans in death
or Soviet prison camps. Many of those who evaded the Soviets joined Latvian resistance movements,
including the aforementioned Forest Brothers, and contested their occupation for decades.
On resistance movements, various Latvian organisations resisted either the Soviets,
Germans, or both during all three occupations. Some even worked with one foreign power to help
defeat the other. The Latvian Central Council was an example of a pro-Latvian-independence
movement which fought for Latvia's interests alone, while many pro-Soviet
resistances operated under the *Central Staff of the Partisan Movement in Moscow.*
All in all, Latvia lost about 25% of its population throughout the war,
and, as with Estonia, the state wasn't back in Latvian hands until 1994.
Unlike Estonia and Latvia, Lithuania was first assigned to Germany under the Molotov-Ribbentrop
Pact, yet this was soon changed, and — as was customary — the Soviets coerced Lithuania
into letting them accommodate some 20,000 troops there in October 1939. The Soviets
then took control from the inside, let in more troops, and coloured Lithuania red on the map.
During this first occupation, Lithuanian partisans, such as the Lithuanian Activist Front,
were active, but Lithuanians were still forced fight in the Red Army, namely under the 16th and
29th Rifle Divisions. Many of these men deserted as soon as they could, though some Lithuanian
communists chose to stay on and fight the Germans alongside other Lithuanians from elsewhere in
the USSR. During "Sovietisation," between 20,000 and 30,000 Lithuanians were deported,
many to labour camps in Central Asia. Around 12,000 were arrested as "enemies of the
people," and a further 17,000 were deported to Siberia in the lead up to the German invasion.
As for the German invasion itself, it was met by some joint Soviet and Lithuanian resistance,
while some anti-Soviet and pro-independence resistance movements worked to undermine the
Soviets from the inside. Still, after taking some 3,400 casualties, the Germans successfully
took and occupied the state. Having killed thousands of Lithuanians in the process, however,
Lithuania wasn't quite so welcoming as the other two Baltic states. Unlike with Estonia and Latvia,
no Lithuanian Waffen-SS unit was formed, and their resistance was generally more organised.
Still, Lithuania took the full brunt of German occupation,
with the Holocaust beginning within the first few days and as many as 120,000 Lithuanian Jews losing
their lives by December 1941 alone. By the end of the war, that number grew as large as 195,000,
accounting for 90 to 95% of the state's Jewish population. Tens of thousands of Lithuanians took
part in the Lithuanian Holocaust or otherwise assisted their occupiers. Also, by June 1944,
as many as 100,000 Lithuanians had been deported to Germany, where they undertook forced labour.
Coordinated in part by the Lithuania Partisan Movement, Lithuanians, Poles, and even Soviets
contested the Germans, but the Lithuanian partisans largely avoided violence at this time.
When the Soviets returned, they actively contested resistance organisations by deporting as many as
120,000 people by 1953. This didn't wholly undo the Lithuanian resistance, however.
The aforementioned Forest Brothers continued to engage their occupiers until 1953,
while nonviolent resistance continued for decades beyond that. If the partisans were caught, they
were tortured to death, and their entire families may have been deported. Often, they exploded
themselves with grenades to avoid capture. On the Forest Brothers in general, at least
50,000 Estonians, Latvians, and Lithuanians lost their lives fighting foreign occupation
throughout World War II and up until they regained their independence in the early 1990s.
Fun fact — forest Brother Jānis Pīnups didn't come out of hiding until 1995.
All in all, Lithuania lost over a million people between 1940 and 1953,
which works out to be about a third of the state's pre-war population.
We've tried to cover a lot of ground in relatively little space here, but what
do you think? Did we do the Baltics justice? Of the many topics we brushed over in this video,
which would you like us to cover in more detail? Please share your thoughts in the comments.